Lennox Lewis Quotes

During the past twenty-three years, I have set a number of goals for myself and I’m proud to say that these goals have been achieved.

If the media didn't know I played chess, there'd be no angle on me at all.

Sometimes the image of the intellectual boxer did for me more harm than good. If a boxer has a reputation as an intellectual, some people no longer respect him as a fighter. With me it was always ‘Lennox should react, not think’. But that’s nonsense. Only the guy who controls his opponent wins.

I'm undisputed and there's no disputing that.

Adversity is something that makes reaching your goals so much more rewarding than if it didn't exist.

The Tyson fight was like the hardest I ever trained for a fight in my entire career.

The media can make boxers, controls who makes it big and who doesn’t. They can build up fighters or knock them down.

Patience is a part of boxing. After I had missed out on the Olympic gold medal in 1984, a lot of people tried to talk me into turning professional quickly to make money. They told me that the next Olympics in Seoul would be boycotted again, that I was wasting my life, blah blah. But I still had unfinished business. I wanted the gold medal, and I got it in ‘88. Only then was I ready to turn professional.

You can just fight one man at a time.

I've got a new life now, a new future, there's a lot more to Lennox Lewis than just being a boxer.

I always ask myself why old heavyweights come back, but I plan to stay out of the ring.

I've found that taking shortcuts will get you to the place you don't want to be much quicker than they get u to the place u want to be.

I come across famous people all the time. It's the respect factor I appreciate. They respect me, they respect what I've achieved and the manner I've done it. It's street credibility. They know where I'm coming from, they know my reputation.

You can consider me like fine wine. I just get better with age.

There is not too much left for me to do, but I am sure there are a couple of great fights out there for me. I have basically achieved my goals. There are a few fights the public wants to see, and that is really what is left for me.

I just want to complete my legacy.

The fight will last as long as I allow it to last.

Every era that comes along has a superstar that emerges. Once we are out of the game, there will be a superstar who will emerge that everyone will notice.

People are still crying out for Lennox Lewis. They still want to see Lennox Lewis. That motivated me. I am still young. I have a couple fights left in me.

Mike Tyson fit the American ideal of a boxer. A fighter who jumps out of his corner and hits out fiercely. That’s what he’'ll be remembered for. But good boxing doesn’t work like that. Tyson never won on points. It was clear that he’'d come a cropper some day.

I am just taking the top fights out there for me. People will get bored seeing me every day knock someone out.

Boxing always was corrupt and always will be corrupt. The three world champion's belts really are absurd. One single association would make this business more reputable. Just as powerful as the promoters, is the media. The cable networks control the cash flow. You can’t ignore the influence the media and the promoters have on the sport. They have a financial objective - high ratings, selling pay-per-views and selling out arenas. Because of the system, the public may not be seeing the best the sport has to offer, but what sells.

In boxing, if you think you will lose... you're already halfway there.

Now I am ready to set new goals and start a new career for myself outside of the ring.

I have always been English, ever since I emigrated from England and since the kids in Canada beat me up at the age of twelve for having an East London Cockney accent. I thank them for the cockney taunts because the beatings turned me on to boxing. But on a serious note Canada has been kind to me.

Vitali [Klitschko] does want to fight me, but his promoter wants to be bigger than him. This is another situation of politics in the sport.

For me, there's never any bad blood - unless you do something to me.

It's not rage that drives me, it's competition.

I could never stand big-mouthed types. I had problems with that at high school. I’ve still got the scars on my fists from the teeth of the guys I hit so that they’d finally shut up. I came from England to Canada, of course, and was often ridiculed because I had a strange accent. I was expelled from school and it was a long time before I could control myself. But the impulse remained: a punch in the mouth to get some peace and quiet.

Sometimes success needs interruption to regain focus and shake off complacency.

A boxer should quit at the top, as they say. But that’s complicated. There are plenty of people in boxing who make money out off you. And they tell you that you’ve still got it, that it’s still getting better.

There are still a lot of Mike Tyson fans out there, and a lot of disbelievers in the first fight, and they want to see us fight again. I am the emperor. If he wants to fight, I am here. If he does not, I understand.

How can you trust a man who can talk for 5 minutes and you cant understand a sentence of it!

I am definitely not scared of Mike Tyson. I am at the top of the food chain and he is looking to knock me off. Mike's an arrogant imbecile. He sounds like a cartoon character.

[Kirk] Johnson throws some heavy punches and is a knockout fighter. This is what people want to see. They want to see a fight, they want to see punches and they want to see action.

Recently I donated money to the establishment of the Muhammad Ali Foundation in Louisville. I regard that as a kind of payback. He smoothed the way for us. He wasn’t just a great person who had conviction, but made the sport of boxing great. He was the first superstar, he made our stock rise. Without him we wouldn’t have earned so much. Americans from every walk of life have contributed to the foundation: Bill Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt. Unfortunately I was the only American athlete to make a donation. There’s not enough respect in our business.

People want to see me back in the ring. I think it is more of a drag lying around on the beach.

In boxing you create a strategy to beat each new opponent, it's just like chess.

The danger of a closed mind is that it can also leave good things like love, compassion and reason on its outside.

Boxing involves the possibility of defeat, I accepted that very early on. After all, there are only two men and one of them wins.

I am proud to be in Los Angeles. I have a lot of fans that love me here. When you talk about the Meccas of boxing - Las Vegas, New York - now you have to talk about Los Angeles.

There is just one rule about boxing: never bet on the white guy.

The fact is that Mike Tyson bit through my trousers and took a significant piece of flesh out of my thigh.

If you’ve got physical weaknesses, you’ll lose. Nobody who gets cut easily can be a champion, however strong and talented he is. Boxers are trained to see and exploit their opponents’ weaknesses, they hit you on your wounds. Only the strongest survive in this sport.

It's a very interesting fight [Klitchko vs Tyson Fury] because this is the first time [Wladimir] Klitschko is fighting someone as big as him and with longer arms. He will have to be a little bit more aggressive, otherwise the younger guy will have more speed and more energy and I think that may be the difference.

A great champion needs a background in amateur boxing, I’'m convinced of that. There you learn everything that you’ll need later as a pro. Someone who’s got more than 400 amateur fights behind him no longer gets nervous before going into the ring and doesn’t lose his nerve during a fight. You know all the boxing styles, you’re prepared for anything, you’ve got the pedigree that you need to be a successful pro.

I don't have anything else to prove.

I think Kirk Johnson is a more exciting fighter than Chris Byrd. A lot of people agree with me when it comes to that.